{"id":78108,"date":"2016-04-04T19:33:37","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T19:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=78108"},"modified":"2023-04-14T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T14:51:09","slug":"behind-mic-play-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/behind-mic-play-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Mic: Play Ball!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Play ball!!\u00a0 Those are the words that baseball fans heard this week when the 2016 season began on Sunday.\u00a0 Hopes are always high as the new season begins.\u00a0 Fans from Toronto, Texas, Kansas City, St. Louis, LA, and New York hope their teams can repeat as Divisional champions.\u00a0 Royals\u2019 fans are hoping for a two-peat as Kansas City defends their World Series championship.\u00a0 And Phillies fans are hoping for great improvement and a possible miracle on Broad Street.\u00a0 This is how I think the divisions will go:<\/p>\n

American League<\/strong>
\nWest<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Houston <\/a>\u2013 Wild card entry last year; lost to Kansas City in the playoffs; needed a closer and got the Phillies Ken Giles; will win division this year.<\/li>\n
  2. Texas Rangers<\/a> \u2013 Weak in the outfield and at starting pitching; could finish lower, but not higher.<\/li>\n
  3. Seattle <\/a>\u2013 Rookie manager; weak pitching rotation; almost a whole new roster.<\/li>\n
  4. LA Angels<\/a> \u2013 With Trout and Pujols, you would think they would be better, but pitching makes them \u201cnot so good\u201d.<\/li>\n
  5. Oakland <\/a>\u2013 Play poor defense and bullpen is weak; lost 35 games by one run last year \u2013 turn those around and\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Central<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Kansas City<\/a> \u2013 Defending champs; fundamentally they are terrific; offense and bullpen overcome an average starting rotation; will win division easily.<\/li>\n
    2. Cleveland <\/a>\u2013 Excellent rotation; little offense; no attendance = no money to get even better.<\/li>\n
    3. Chicago<\/a> \u2013 Poor offense; poor bullpen; poor rotation = poor season.<\/li>\n
    4. Detroit <\/a>\u2013 74-87 last year, horrible bullpen, but team is better than last year with off-season deals.<\/li>\n
    5. Minnesota <\/a>\u2013 Manager Paul Molitor is their greatest asset; performed miracles with this team last year; not again.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      East<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Toronto <\/a>\u2013 First place last year; first place this year; best offensive unit in the AL overcomes any other weaknesses.<\/li>\n
      2. Boston <\/a>\u2013 \u201cBig Papi\u2019s\u201d last year; might drive the Sox to emotional title, but pitching staff as a whole is very questionable.<\/li>\n
      3. New York Yankees<\/a> \u2013 Great bullpen (I mean \u201cGreat!\u201d); aging lineup; this team could finish first or last depending on starters.<\/li>\n
      4. Tampa Bay<\/a> \u2013 No fan support, no money, no bullpen; starting rotation is pretty good and makes them better than the Orioles.<\/li>\n
      5. Baltimore <\/a>\u2013 Can score (hit 129 HR\u2019s last year), but can\u2019t keep other team from outscoring them.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Kansas City will win the American League pennant.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        National League<\/strong>
        \nWest<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. San Francisco<\/a> \u2013 The Giants win in even-numbered years (what? \u2013 I read it somewhere); upgraded their pitching staff; need to upgrade their batting stats.<\/li>\n
        2. LA Dodgers<\/a> \u2013 Clayton Kershaw will win almost every five days and this team is solid in every way, but team chemistry is a problem (ask fired manager Don Mattingly).<\/li>\n
        3. Arizona <\/a>\u2013 Could win the division after acquiring two very good starters; bullpen is suspect for sure.<\/li>\n
        4. San Diego<\/a> \u2013 Will not contend; rebuilding after trying their best with deals last year.<\/li>\n
        5. Colorado <\/a>\u2013 Stadium helps them offensively, but seems to help the opponents even more. Among the worst teams in baseball.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Central<\/strong><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Chicago <\/a>\u2013 Joe Madden! Joe Madden!\u00a0 No real weaknesses except their own history.\u00a0 Last title in 1908.<\/li>\n
          2. St. Louis<\/a> \u2013 Great manager in Matheny; not as strong as last year when they won 100 games, but they always seem to be at or near the top.<\/li>\n
          3. Pittsburgh <\/a>\u2013 outstanding outfield both offensively and defensively; Melancon led majors in saves; happen to be in a very tough division.<\/li>\n
          4. Milwaukee <\/a>\u2013 While being weak to begin with, they got weaker in spring training when they lost their closer; pitching was bad anyway.<\/li>\n
          5. Cincinnati <\/a>\u2013 Had an all-rookie starting lineup for the last third of the 2015 season; still rebuilding; not good.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            East<\/strong><\/p>\n

              \n
            1. NY Mets<\/a> \u2013 Great pitching; same lineup as last year, except for Daniel Murphy; should win it again.<\/li>\n
            2. Washington <\/a>\u2013 With Bryce Harper and their pitching, they still find a way to lose (injuries); maybe first-year manager Dusty Baker can finally get them over the hump.<\/li>\n
            3. Miami <\/a>\u2013 Eighth manager (Don Mattingly) in last seven years and Barry Bonds as hitting coach makes one go \u201chmmm\u201d; and still they will be better than the Phillies and the Braves.<\/li>\n
            4. Philadelphia <\/a>\u2013 Pete Mackanin will have the team playing hard, but the talent level is low ( except for Franco).<\/li>\n
            5. Atlanta<\/a> \u2013 Worst team last year in runs scored; won four more games than the Phillies last season; four less this year?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Chicago will beat the Mets for the N L pennant.<\/strong>
              \nCubs win it all!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

              ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

                \n
              1. As bad as my bracketing was this year, I did manage to pick the correct winners in the semifinals in last week\u2019s blog \u2013 North Carolina<\/a> and Villanova<\/a>. As I write this on the National Championship morning and if \u201cdefense wins championships\u201d then Villanova will win the 2016 NCAA Championship<\/a>.<\/li>\n
              2. \u00a0With North Carolina in the title game, it brought back memories of Catasauqua\u2019s Larry Miller who I played against in the 1963 District championship game at the Harrisburg Farm Show Arena. He scored 42 points and we lost the game.\u00a0 The following year, Larry scored 46 of his team\u2019s 66 points while beating Steelton in the 1964 state playoffs.\u00a0 He went on to play for Dean Smith and North Carolina and was the ACC\u2019s Men\u2019s Basketball Player of the Year in both 1967 and 1968 and was named as one of the fifty greatest players in ACC history.<\/li>\n
              3. \u00a0I also remember back to April 1, 1985, when Villanova, under Rollie Massimino, beat Georgetown 66-64 in a big upset to win the NCAA National Championship. They were led by Ed Pinckney.\u00a0 By the way, they beat North Carolina that year in the Southeast Regional final 56-44.<\/li>\n
              4. \u00a0Bourjos, Hernandez, Herrera, Franco, Howard, Galvis, Rupp, and Goedel will be the Phillies position players to start the season. Bring a scorecard \u2013 remember, \u201cYou can\u2019t tell the players without a scorecard\u201d.\u00a0 This has never been more appropriate.<\/li>\n
              5. \u00a0And, finally, the UConn women<\/a> won their 74th<\/sup> consecutive game on Sunday destroying Oregon State<\/a> 80-51 and will play Syracuse on Tuesday for the Women\u2019s National Championship<\/a>. A UConn win for Coach Geno Auriemma would be his 11th<\/sup> national championship and move him past UCLA\u2019s John Wooden for the most all-time.\u00a0 The two teams are meeting for the first time this year or last year and no team who hasn\u2019t played them in the last two years has beaten them in the last decade!\u00a0 No need to go out on a limb \u2013 UConn wins their 4th<\/sup> straight championship and their 75th<\/sup> straight game!!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Play ball!!\u00a0 Those are the words that baseball fans heard this week when the 2016 season began on Sunday.\u00a0 Hopes are always high as the new season begins.\u00a0 Fans from Toronto, Texas, Kansas City, St. Louis, LA, and New York hope their teams can repeat as Divisional champions.\u00a0 Royals\u2019 fans are hoping for a two-peat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[631,365,630,421,541],"class_list":["post-78108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-north-carolina","tag-phillies","tag-villanova"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBehind the Mic: Play Ball! 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